This week, Cincinnati Landmark Productions publicly unveiled plans for their new theatre in the Incline District of Price Hill, and the organization also announced that they now have commitments for more than 90 percent of the funding for the project. Tim Perrino, artistic director of Cincinnati Landmark Productions, presented the plans first to the East Price Hill Improvement Association at that group’s January meeting.

Cincinnati Landmark Productions

Phoenix Architecture worked with Cincinnati Landmark Productions to design the state-of-the-art facility; they created the design with the historic character of the Incline District, with a nod toward the original Price Hill Incline House, which once stood nearby. In addition, the planners tried to ensure that as much existing parking as possible was preserved; the design also calls for an attached garage to provide new parking spaces for the theatre. The theatre will seat approximately 220 patrons, and the plans call for a rehearsal hall, storage, offices, and a lobby bar in addition to the auditorium.

In a letter posted by Perrino on the Incline Theatre website, he announced that he expects the new theatre to open in the spring of 2015; groundbreaking is planned for as early as late April of this year. The theatre will present two seasons each year, with a summer season of theatrical classics in addition to a main stage season running from September to May each year. There are plans to have an estimated 112 show nights per year in the new space, including one-night concerts, comedy events, and cabarets in addition to the two seasons.

“The Incline Theater will be the new beacon on the hilltop,” Perrino said in his letter, and he notes that the Incline District is a neighborhood on the rise. “It’s exactly the place a growing arts organization wants to be,” and he anticipates the new theatre making as large an impact on East Price Hill as the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts has had on West Price Hill. Since the Covedale opened in 2002, that theatre has quadrupled its subscription base, from 804 the first year to more than 3,700 for the upcoming season. Attendance rose threefold in a decade, from 13,990 in the 2002–03 season to more than 36,000 theatre goers from all over the tristate in the 2012–13 season.

Planned costs for the construction of the new theatre are estimated at more than $5.5 million; fundraising is ongoing for the final 10 percent of the costs that still needs to be raised. Sponsorships are available; individual donations are tax deductible; and a special event on Sunday, March 30, will bring a famous west sider back to Price Hill. “An Evening with Pete Rose,” the night before Opening Day, will feature the Hit King speaking about his favorite baseball memories, telling stories from his days at West Hi, and even giving his thoughts on the 2014 baseball season, hours before the first pitch of the season. Rose will also take questions from the audience. Tickets are available online or by calling (513) 241-6550.

The theatre project, the newest addition to the East Price Hill Entertainment District, is a collaboration between Cincinnati Landmark Productions and Price Hill Will. For more information and more renderings of the theatre’s design, visit the Incline Theatre website.

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Julie Hotchkiss is an editor, writer and graphic designer who has lived on the west side of Cincinnati her entire life (although she ventures east of Vine Street more often than many of her neighbors). She is a contributor to CityBeat and other print and online publications. Julie enthusiastically advocates eating, shopping and being entertained locally. Contact her at jnhotchkiss@fuse.net.